Principal Author:

Christian Bloch

Christian Bloch is an acclaimed Visual Effects Artist who has been working professionally in the field for years. He speaks the language of an artist, and he understands that a hands-on tutorial is a thousand times more valuable to the learning process than scientific formulas.

A native of Germany, he works and lives in Hollywood, California. His work can be seen in StarTrek:Enterprise, Smallville, Invasion, Lost, 24, and a growing number of movies and commercials. He has been a pioneer in the practical application of HDRI in post-production, specifically under the budgetary and time restraints of TV production.

Bloch earned a degree in multimedia technology. Years of research and development went into his diploma thesis about HDRI, which was honored with the achievement award of the University of Applied Sciences Leipzig. Since his thesis was published online in July 2004, it has been downloaded more than 15,000 times, and it has been established as the primary source of information on HDRI in Germany. This book is the successor to Bloch‘s diploma thesis, rewritten completely from the ground up in English and heavily expanded and updated.

Demoreel | Website | IMDB

Contributing Authors:

To provide you with the best expert knowledge available, Bloch has invited renowned experts to share their practical experiences and their secret workflow tricks.

Bernhard Vogl

Bernhard Vogl is one of Vienna’s finest panorama photographers. His particular interest in HRDI is a natural progression towards capturing even more of “The Real Thing”. Just like a panorama breaks the framing restrictions of photography, a panoramic HDRI breaks free from exposure restrictions. For Vogl, this is the next step for capturing the moment, and preserve it in a digital VR environment. | Website

Dieter Bethke

Dieter Bethke has more then 17 years of experience in digital media production and artistic photography, showing his prints at several galleries in Germany. He also works as a consultant for digital fine art printing, pre-press, color management, and digital photography. Bethke has also contributed to the German localization and manual of Photomatix, which has been a remarkable resource for the photographic community. | Website

Uwe Steinmüller

Uwe Steinmüller is known to the photography scene as the chief editor of DigitalOutbackPhoto.com - one of the most valuable resources on digital fine art photography. Originating from Germany, he moved to California in 1997, where he focused on the digital workflow, raw file processing, and fine art printing. He has written a number of books, two of which won the prestigious German “Photography Book Award” in 2004 and 2005. | Website